It’s common for a child to have a sweet tooth. Since sugary things taste great, children become restless to get hold of them. And as parents, you cannot expect them to have a sense of long term reward over short term pleasures. They are unable to perceive how sugar affects their teeth and thus themselves pave their way to cavities and dental problems.

Survey reveals, forty-two percent of American children between the ages of two and eleven have similar forms tooth decay.

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How sugar causes the damage?

The sugar itself is not the cause of concern. The damage causing factor for your teeth is acid. Various bacteria feed upon the sugar in your mouth as a source of their food and energy. In the process, these bacteria breaks down the sugar and acid is the resultant. The acid eats away at the enamel and also removes the minerals from your teeth. This outcomes are:

Tooth decay and rot.

Cavities.

De-mineralised teeth.

Toothaches and even sensitive teeth.

Can government intervention help?

Let us take for an instance the case from another part of this earth.

The sugar levy in England, has been hugely successful in dealing with the overflow of fizzy and sugary drinks that put their pangs on the health of thousands of youngsters. Government intervention was therefore a dire necessity to reduce the amount of sugar going into soft drinks most popular among the younger generation. Consumers were automatically discouraged hugely from purchasing unhealthy drinks frequently!

Ways to prevent the sugar damage:

Even if you are cutting down on the intake of sugary foods, you probably will not be able to shield your offspring completely from sugary products. Rather, it would be both wise and effective to take steps to resist the bacterial attack as well as formation of cavities.

Fluoride:

Fluoride is a natural mineral that helps prevent tooth decay in its own unique way. Due to its unique properties, it is often added to community water systems and most toothpastes too. Thus if your child is drinking plenty of fluoridated water and brushing regularly with a fluoride toothpaste, he or she is in safe hands.

How Fluoride works?

Fluoride is a chemical ion of fluorine. Fluorine is one among the top 20 common element on earth’s crust. An ion is a positively or negatively charged atom. Since fluorine is a negatively charged ion, as soon as it meets with a positively charged one like sodium, cavity fighters are created. Thus Fluoride helps in making teeth stronger and healthier.

Drink plenty of water:

If it is fluoridated water it helps your kid’s teeth more! Water not only washes away the bacteria but also keeps your mouth moist. This is important as your saliva contains calcium and phosphate that bathes your teeth to keep them healthy!

Drink sugary drinks like fruit juices and soda with a straw:

This indeed is a good way to reduce contact of the sugary liquids with your teeth. It allows soda to go directly into the back of your mouth. Although the environmental impact of disposing straws is a cause of concern, yet, there are plenty of eco-straws available out there.

Brush and floss:

This is the most obvious solution. Clean your teeth at least twice a day and especially after you have consumed something sugary or highly acidic. Wait forty-five minutes to an hour before brushing. This is because brushing your teeth after there has been an acidic attack can wear them away even more! Thus, one needs to wait for the acid to wear off before brushing.

It is true that you cannot keep your children away from candies, plums and berries all the time. For this reason, you need to make the preventive measures work in your case. Keep yourself aware of the food habits of your child and keep a track of what the kid is consuming throughout the day. If the sugar intake has been high for any particular reason, try taking stricter teeth care measures for the day is really important.